In the same way an athlete places physical demands on their body, a singer places demands on their voice, hence the term ‘vocal athlete.’
Like with any athlete, having a well structured warm-up and cool-down routine seems to be essential for voice maintenance and longevity. I highly recommend this especially if you are an active voice performer and using your voice a lot on a day to day basis.
While warming up the voice is well researched and talked about, there doesn’t seem to be as much written about cooling down the voice after use and what that entails.
So let’s dive into what we do know and what some voice experts have suggested !
Cooling down is recommended by voice experts after considerable voice use as the exercises can help:
-reduce voice fatigue (or swelling post use) promote voice tissue recovery
-reduce muscle tension
-reduce lactic acid build-up
-‘reset’ the larynx
-promote balanced phonation (restore the voice to its baseline for regular speech)
-reduce the risk of vocal injury (long term)
It’s important to remember that every singer will have different needs and skill levels therefore the cool down regime needs to be customized and also take into account the singer’s vocal load and demand.
Here are some examples/suggestions of exercises:
Straw phonation: benefits: airway expansion, vocal fold posturing, reducing phonation threashold pressure, larynx lowering. Sing through a straw in water in descending scale patterns. Use a bigger diameter straw.
Other exercises: “mm” /“ng”/ “v” or lip trills - try pitch glides or sirens - descending direction
Vocal fry - perform a gentle vocal fry for 5x for 5 seconds
Chest voice concentration (bringing you back to your optimal speaking range using vowel/consonant combinations on a 5 note scale (my suggestion: try close vowels with aspirate consonants: “foo”
Your vocal cool down exercise routine doesn’t need to be long or intense to be effective, maybe start with 3-5 minutes post gig.
Other things to consider:
Vocal Rest
Sleep
Hydration (systemic and surface)
Manual Therapy (laryngeal massage by a licensed RMT or SLP)
These may be part of an active singer’s vocal health protocol and can all aid in voice recovery after intense voice use.
It’s helpful to know that adding vocal cool-down exercises into your routine post gig can support recovery, reduce fatigue, and improve overall vocal health for the long term.
What the research says:
A study in 2011 concluded that the immediate benefits of vocal cool-down exercises were not obvious, but subjective perceptions of vocal well-being were improved 12-24 hours after using the exercises. (Gottliebson, Renee O. Efficacy of Cool-Down Exercises in the Practice Regimen of Elite Singers. PhD diss., University of Cincinnati, 2011. OhioLINK )
2020 study found that vocal cool-downs reduce vocal fold tension and improve smoothness & stability after intense use, leading to better pitch control and enhanced voice quality. Mezzedimi, C., et al. (2020). Singing voice: Acoustic parameters after vocal warm-up and cool-down.
PMID: 30522367
A study in 2016 found that singers reported improvements in vocal well-being (in speaking & singing) after using vocal cool-down exercises. Singers noticed positive effects such as reduced vocal fatigue and improved ease of singing. Ragan, Kari. "The Impact of Vocal Cool-Down Exercises: A Subjective Study of Singers' and Listeners PMID: 26778328
In 2018 Dr. Kari Ragan wrote an article in the Journal of Singing which suggests a protocol of cool down exercises (including straw phonation and gentle humming) that can enhance vocal stability and vocal health - refer to this article for more suggested exercises. (Ragan, K. (2018). The efficacy of vocal cool-down exercises. Journal of Singing, 74(5), 521-526)
